A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind)

His gaze on me had been steady, as I had dismounted by the fire. I was curious why the others had let him live let alone bring him to our hidden camp. He spoke.

"Are you the one they call the Zeventhal?"

There was a ready intelligence in his steady gaze, causing me to again wonder why such a man as him would risk being here.

I replied, "I have been known by that name, but I am called by that name no longer. Call me Roric."

He smiled and extended his right hand toward me, but I didn't take it. He held his hand out a moment longer looking uncomfortable as I left it there in space unshaken. He let his hand fall back to his side.

"I have come a long perilous way to find you. I hope it was worth the effort." He said with a slightly aggravated tone to his voice.

"So you have and your perilous journey will end tonight, as you won't leave this camp alive unless you convince me to do otherwise." I said.

His face whitened some at the seriousness of my words and I waited for him to speak, drawing him out with my silence.

He began slowly, as if considering his words carefully, "I, as you have surely guessed, am a Valley Lander, a sworn enemy to the people of this land, the Zoarinians. However we are not enemies by choice, but rather the state of war between our two peoples has been one of the Zoarinians making, entirely spurred on by their continued and constant aggression towards us, because of disagreements in the ancient past. We have been expecting them to mount an all out assault on us for some time now."

"What has any of this to do with me?" I asked feigning a disinterested tone of voice, as I drew a knife from my belt and tested its edge for sharpness with my thumb looking at him suggestively as I did so.

With a desperate tinge to his tone he asked, "Are you aware of who your father was?"

Now he had gotten my attention, but I kept it from showing on my face, "Why don't you tell me?" I said in a measured tone.

"He was the son of one of the most influential Valley Lander families ever, heir to a great estate and even a castle. He was poised to take over control from his father, when attempts were made to assassinate his wife, which nearly succeeded. One morning just after the last incident to take his wife's life, he disappeared with his wife and newborn son never to be heard from again. His father searched for years until he found where he had been living in the Hills of Ernor under the maiden name of his wife, but it was too late. They found the bodies of your father and his wife and that of a son born later on. It was rumored that the oldest son was taken south and sold as a slave to a fighting school."